Category Archives: Hip Hop

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It was a bright cold day on the ‘spill, and the clocks were striking 13…

11-12-13-rr-game

My 11 most played albums of ’12 in ’13.

My end of year round up is now turned into the ‘spill game:
you know the score DUMP one (or all of them – see if I care)

It’s pop and it’s fun – don’t take it too seriously.
Remember, they are my most played – I’m not claiming they will change the world – I just liked them.


Band names in BOLD – for those who believe I make stuff up:

1 Stroke My Curls The Dodoz Forever I Can Purr 2012
2 Cuka (feat. Ikonoklasta) Batida Batida (feat. Mck, Circuito Feixado, Ikonoklasta, Beat Laden 2012
3 The Empty Man Whitey Lost Summer 2012
4 Genevieve Stealing Sheep Into The Diamond Sun 2012
5 Horn For The Whole Damn World Lazarus and the Plane Crash Horseplay
6 Passenger Emily Wells Mama 2012
7 Kevlar Sweethearts Diablo Swing Orchestra Pandora’s Pinata 2012
8 Be Strong (Blakkat Remix) The 2 Bears Be Strong (Deluxe Edition) 2012
9 Rat-at-at The Skints Part & Parcel 2012
10 Clap Hooded Fang Tosta Mista 2012
11 Circus Sunday Driver The Mutiny 2012

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Mystery Beats

Mired knee deep in the televisual episodic meth cooking swamp, a tune sprang forth that got to me. Got to me because it sounds so familiar, but I’m damned if I can give it any context – is the the flow, the rhyme scheme, the riddim? Is it just a throwback to some golden age rap track that’s somewhere in my subconscious? I hadn’t heard of Ana Tijoux or her Chilean Hip-Hop til today, so I’m throwing it open to the expert hive-mind of The ‘Spill for help, please. Killer tune though, with the rolling of the rs and the rolling of the snare.

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Precocious youngsters make brilliant LP non-shocker

This Canadian combo has been brought to my attention via the Gilles Peterson show as they do jazz covers of hip-hop tunes and have just released their 2nd LP which is available for free download here :

http://badbadnotgood.com/

As they state on their bandcamp page :

“No one above the age of 21 was involved in the making of this album. This album was recorded in one 10 hour session. Thanks to our friends, family, loved ones and anyone who fucks with us.”

Here they are covering Tyler The Creator’s ‘Bastard’ combined with ‘Lemonade’ which I haven’t a scooby about but sounds alright to me.

Bastard _ Lemonade – BADBADNOTGOOD

Thankfully we can all sleep a lot easier knowing the future of jazz is in safe hands.

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Liberal Baiting with Azealia Banks & Germaine Greer (NSFW)

They still say “fuck you” as a venomous insult; they still find “cunt” the most degrading epithet outside the dictionary

Germaine Greer, 1970.

Forty-one years on, and Azealia Banks has defused the power of the word, reclaiming it from the language of hate by placing it firmly at the forefront of a hip hop house banger. This is what Germaine Greer herself had to say about it:

So then, what’s your view on the word, and will you be using it day to day from now on?

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Happy Birthday, Steenbeck!

We’d better not overlook this one. Checked the “archives” & as far as can tell, Sunday is the day. We beat birthday songs to death, on RR, a few weeks back; so here’s an hour or so (with interval) of DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist performing Brainfreeze. When you get a chance, kick back with the adult beverage of your choice, grab a cupcake & enjoy. If you still like stuff like this, you can’t possibly feel all that much older really can you?

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Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip

I went to see this strangely monikered duo last night in Brighton and it’s stayed with me so I’m posting a rare spillage in homage. Sold out last April much to my disappointment I made sure tickets were purchased way in advance this time around. They wouldn’t sell out twice in one year thought would they ? In a recession ? £14.50 a ticket ? Yes they did. I had one spare ticket, put it on Twitter, the band retweeted and I sold it to a zombie nurse outside – face value of course…

The show was awesome. Classic hip-hop set-up, but with two white guys from South London (Millwall fans actually in the case of Pip) one of whom resembles a Taleban commander. He’s the rapper, or wordsmith, because it would be a stretch to describe what he does as rapping. He’s a political poet of the old skool, spoken word merchant, and DanLe Sac’s beats place them into the hip-hop world. But their lyrical content is very fresh indeed, and very British too.

There’s another song I could have posted called Get Better, and yet another called The Beat That My Heart Skipped, yet another called Stake A Claim. Wonderful stuff ! For those who prefer content over style…..

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2000 Pt. 2

The Time Is Now – Moloko
Good Fortune – PJ Harvey
Gravel Pit – Wu-Tang Clan
Hip Hop – dead prez
Adore – I:Cube
Concentrate – The Czars
Slowly, Surely – Jill Scott
Ancoats 2 Zambia – The Baby Namboos
Two Seconds – Laura Cantrell
B.O.B. – Outkast

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2000

Ms Jackson – Outkast
Strung Out – Drugs
Camping Jazz – Chateaux Flight
Where Have You Been – Jay-Z
Our Way To Fall – Yo La Tengo
Finally – Kings Of Tomorrow
Man With The Red Face – Laurent Garnier
If I Ever Feel Better – Phoenix
Since I Left You – Avalanches
Africa – D’Angelo

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1990

Bonita Applebum – A Tribe Called Quest
Cherry-Coloured Funk – Cocteau Twins
Groove Is In The Heart – Deee-Lite
Welcome To The Terrordome – Public Enemy
Sons & Daughters – Neville Brothers
Black Boys On Mopeds – Sinead O’Connor
Elli Shatr Enhaa Tgannen – Samir Ali & Sahar Hamdy
Only Love Can Break Your Heart – Saint Etienne
Namlhanje – Abdullah Ibrahim

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Unfamiliar Energy

Two things came to mind when I saw this clip, first David Cameron and this Charlie Brooker piece, especially this bit:

Like an ostensibly realistic human character in a state-of-the-art CGI cartoon, he’s almost convincing – assuming you can ignore the shrieking, cavernous lack of anything approaching a soul. Which you can’t.

I see the sheen, the electronic calm, those tiny, expressionless eyes . . .

and second the line from Jay Electronica’s Exhibit C:

That’s why when you talk the tough talk I never feel ya.

You sound real good and you play the part well, but the energy you givin off is so unfamiliar.

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NilpfHop (Instrumental Hippohop, part 3)

Ammoncontact get a latin workover. The best instrumental hip-hop creates a mood: film themes are often used or adapted, as in Leftfield’s Space March, reworking John Barry’s capsule munching soundtrack to You Only Live Twice. MF Doom weaves similarly dramatic soundscapes out of old Spiderman cartoons, while DJ’s Krush and Shadow mine old funk and R+B records, Krush uncovering a bassline made famous on Shadow’s Influx.
Madlib draws on the best of seventies fusion for his Yesterday’s new quintet project, but his hip-hop roots still shine through. Cinematic Orchestra also occupies a zone halfway between film soundtrack and jazz, while Tosca’s dubscapes are ideal for downbeat club sounds. I couldn’t resist the Neptunes’ Soul Pride, perhaps my favourite Xen Cuts track.

Playlist:

Channel One Suite: Cinematic Orchestra
Space March: Leftfield
Yeah [Kiro]: DJ Krush
What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 3): DJ Shadow
Razor Cut: Chris Stein & Fab Five Freddie
Agrimony: Mf Doom
Pennyroyal: Mf Doom
Four Elements / Yes Yo Life/Just Be Good to me: DJ Krush
The Bachelors Remix (Instrumental): RJD2
Chocolate Elvis (Boozoo Bajou Soul mix): Tosca
Soul Pride: Neptune
Life’s Angles: Yesterday’s New Quintet
Daylight: Yesterday’s New Quintet

Playout..

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We bumped our heads against the clouds…

I don’t get in here much, but I hope this contribution will be welcome. In bed with a summer cold, looking for a summer music cure to enable me to get up and make some long-awaited rhubarb and ginger jam (yes, SatanKidneyPie, it’s coming, really it is) I found this…

Slate magazine has included a page about what they called ‘McSweeney’s mix CD for the Obama era’ - WE BUMPED OUR HEADS AGAINST THE CLOUDS enclosed with the July/August print issue of Believer: “THE 2010 BELIEVER MUSIC ISSUE CD”

Notes by Chuck Lightning: “For black artists, our new president has meant the start of a different age. This music aims to capture it” and others.

Most of it is great, which – coming from someone who mostly doesn’t ‘get’ hip-hop – suggests easier listening than most. (A couple sounded dreadful to my ears first time round, but you never know until you try a few times). I’ve tried to find all the available free plays of these tracks, some videos, some downloads and a spotify. I’ll add the 5  missing tracks when I find them – or you can if you do. I particularly like Nina Simone covering Alice Cooper, but then I’m an old fashioned girl.

TRACKLISTING

1.  DEEP COTTON – SELF!  [link missing]

2.  OF MONTREAL – HYDRA FANCIES

3.  ROMAN GIANARTHUR (FEAT. KEVIN BARNES) – DEPRAVED VALET

4.  CODY CHESNUTT  - COME BACK LIKE SPRING

5.  SAUL WILLIAMS -B.S. IN A TAMPON  [link missing]

6.  JANELLE MONÁE  - COLD WAR (WONDAMIX)

7.  BLK JKS – IIETYS

8.  SPREE WILSON  – CHAOS  [link missing]

9.  SCAR – REWIND

10. ROB ROY  - VELVET ROPE BLUE [download]

11. HOLLYWEERD – HAVE YOU EVER MADE LOVE TO A WEIRDO?

12. FEAR & FANCY – OFF THE GRID

13. GEORGE 2.0 – TURN OFF THE TV [close enough]

14. M.I.A. – BORN FREE

15. HOT HEAVY & BAD (JOI) – ONE  [link missing]

16. TENDABERRY<- COLD BOY

17.  MOTHER NOVELLA  – CLOSER 9 1/2  [link missing]

18. NINA SIMONE – I NEVER CRY

Also, while looking for these tracks online, found this by ekua adisa, which I liked a lot.

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Mala’s Back

In true Maki style (ie. about three months late) I thought I’d just let those of you who are interested know that my favourite Spanish hip hop artist, La Mala Rodríguez, released “Dirty Bailarina” in April. It’s not as ballsy as Alevosía and she seems to have more of a groove thing going on this time around but I like it. Here’s a couple or three more tracks – one a duet with Estrella Morente.

More here

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New Orleans Special

A small representation of New Orleans and Louisiana music, mostly by artists from the area, inspired by Treme and a funeral I attended where the body was introduced by a New Orleans style band, featuring Crescent City legends such as Allen Toussaint, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and the Nevilles a few of the tracks here are N.O. songs by outsiders, sometimes N.O. songs by local folk. There’s a wider selection in the ‘box:

West End Blues – Louis Armstrong
Shag – New Orleans Feetwarmers
Climax Rag – Jelly Roll Morton’s New Orleans Jazzmen
Petite Fleur – Chris Barber
New Orleans (The Rising Sun Blues) – Leadbelly
Basin Street blues/When It’s Sleepy Time Down South Medley – Louis Prima

Big Chief – Professor Longhair
Ya Ya – Lee Dorsey
Free, Single And Disengaged – Huey “Piano” Smith & His Clowns
Goin’ Down – Allen Toussaint
Handa Wanda – Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indian Band
Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall) – Mystikal
Hook ‘N’ Sling, Pt. 2 – Eddie Bo

Pop, Popcorn Children – Eldridge Holmes
Gossip – Cyril Neville
Chicken Strut – The Meters
Cold Bear – The Gaturs
Right Place, Wrong Time – Dr. John

Crazy Cajun Cakewalk Band – Redbone
The Flood – Eilen Jewell
Louisiana 1927 – The Neville Brothers
La Vieille Chanson de Mardi Gras – Cedric Watson
Cryin’ In The Streets – Buckwheat Zydeco

Also, GHE was asking if anybody has any recommendations as to music venues /local performers to try and see when he visits the city in October.

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In the beginning…

I was excited when I first heard that every thinking ‘Spiller’s favourite Somali-Canadian rapper K’Naan was providing the theme song for the World Cup. Then I heard the execrable travesty that is the official Coke-endorsed version of Wavin’ Flag. Proof that it’s impossible to make a good football record (unless, of course, you’re Half Man Half Biscuit).

It’s sad that this particular recording is going to introduce him to a global audience of hundreds of millions. So I thought I’d post this as a small way of redressing the balance:

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It was a very good year

Here’s my podcast!

1. I’m sorry! It’s extremely inarticulate and not well-explained, and I SWEAR my vocabulary is bigger than this!

2. I’m sorry, but it’s all hip hop, and I know that a) people who like hip hop will have heard everything in here b) people who don’t like hip hop won’t probably listen. But I ask that you give it a try. I only included about a minute of each song, so if you don’t like it, you don’t have long to wait. Gil Baily stylee! If anybody would like to hear the rest of any song, please let me know and I’ll drop it.

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UK Hip-hop – What’s Happening – Part 2

They may call it “crackhouse” (oh why oh why oh why) but there’s no denying that this one’s a bit of a banger and may rehabilitate Ms Dynamite…hold on **ring ring** **ring ring**

Blimpy “Hi”

MIA “Hi Blimps, you posting up on DJ Zinc?”

B: “Yeah, I was actually -remember his D&B tunes from way back when?”

MIA “Dem beats was sick, yeah?”

B: “Indeed, how are you?”

MIA: “I’m vexed yeah, Ms Dynamite’s biting my flow, innit?”

B: “I was just about to mention that in the blog post. See you down the Dog n Bucket for the quiz later?”

MIA: “Course. Laters”